System And Method For Generating Dynamically Filtered Content Results, Including For Audio And/Or Video Channels

ABSTRACT

A system and method for allowing a user to more effectively generate focused content results, including audio and/or video content is described. Content is dynamically filtered to generate content results in response to initial filtering settings or characteristics. The content results are provided to a user. Once the user finds and selects a content result of interest, additional filtering characteristics associated with the selected result are provided to the user as a suggestion for additional filtering. In this manner, the user is made aware of additional filtering settings or characteristics that can be used to focus the search results. Subsequent filter settings and filtering operations can be based on characteristics of previous relevant results in an iterative and dynamic manner. Focused results are more likely produced, because additional filtering settings are provided and adjusted according to characteristics of results deemed relevant by the user.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. Pat. No. 9,311,364, filedApr. 20, 2015, entitled “System And Method For Generating DynamicallyFiltered Content Results, Including For Audio And/Or Video Channels”,which is a continuation of U.S. Pat. No. 9,105,147, filed Dec. 20, 2007,entitled “System And Method For Generating Dynamically Filtered ContentResults, Including For Audio And/Or Video Channels”, the disclosures ofwhich are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a system and method for generatingdynamically filtered content results, including for audio and/or videochannels. A user can iteratively select content of interest among thefiltered content results to receive suggestions on additional filteringcharacteristics. The additional filtering characteristics can then beused to redefine the filtering characteristics to provide contentresults focused on content having characteristics similar to the user'sselected content result of interest.

BACKGROUND

In recent years, there has been enormous increase in the amount ofdigital content available online. As a result, the amount of contentdownloaded by users has increased. This content includes audio and videocontent. For example, Apple® iTunes® enables users to legally purchaseand download music to personal music devices. Video services exist thatallow users to access and download video media. Due to the large amountof content available, searching and filtering technologies have emergedas an important enabler to assist users in navigating large amounts ofcontent to produce and manage subsets of available content. Thesetechnologies are desired to allow users to filter content according tothe user's desires or interests.

Current filtering technologies can be used to generate content resultsaccording to user-defined characteristics or criteria. However, thesefiltering technologies may be inefficient in sufficiently allowing auser to focus the content results to the user's particular interests orgoals. For example, a user may select certain genre tags to generatesong results meeting the desired genre. If the results are notsufficiently narrowed to the user's desires or interests, the user mayhave to change or replace the genre tags to produce new results. Theuser may have to guess which tag changes or replacements should be madeto achieve focused results with no guarantee that more focused resultswill be produced. The user may have to provide several iterations ofdifferent filtering settings or characteristics to finally reach aresult set that is sufficiently narrowed to the user's interests. As onecan imagine, this can be time consuming and possibly frustrating to auser, especially if the iterations do not provide sufficiently focusedresults.

Further, the user may not be aware of all available filter settings thatcan be used to filter content to the desired results. Unknown filtersettings may be the ones that would successfully produce the desiredfocused results. For example, in the iTunes® music classificationsystem, there are over 230 different genre and sub-genre music types.Many users are only familiar with the most popular genre types. However,the most popular types often produce the greatest number of searchresults and thus provide the least focus. Less commonly known genres maybe available to produce the desired focused results.

Thus, a need exists for providing a user the ability to more effectivelyfocus content results to the user's particular desires or interests. Theuser may be unfamiliar with all available filtering characteristicsassociated with the content at issue. Thus, the user may not be able toefficiently focus content results without additional suggestions orassistance.

SUMMARY

Embodiments described include systems and methods for allowing a user tomore effectively generate focused content results, including but limitedto audio and/or video content results. Content is initially filtered togenerate results in response to initial filtering characteristics orsettings. The content results are then provided to a user for review.Once the user finds and selects a content result of particular interest,additional filtering characteristics associated with the selected resultare provided to the user as suggestions to include as updates to thefiltering settings. The suggested filtering characteristics arecharacteristics that were previously unaccounted for in the filteringsettings to produce the results. The updated filter settings can then beused to generate new content results. In this manner, the regenerationof content results is more likely to produce highly relevant and focusedresults. This is because the results are used to affect the filteringitself. The additional filtering characteristics suggested to the userare characteristics of results deemed relevant by the user, as opposedto traditional filtering engines that only produce results in onedirection—from settings to results. With each new generation of contentresults, additional and previously unaccounted for filteringcharacteristics of selected results can be continued to be provided tothe user. The user can continue to select these additional filteringcharacteristics to generate new content results in an iterative anddynamic manner until the results are sufficiently focused to the user'sdesires. It is possible that after a certain number of iterations, theuser's selection of results will not provide new previously unaccountedfor filtering characteristics. This may also provide the user somedegree of comfort that the content results are sufficiently focused.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the content is audio and/orvideo media. In the context of media, the filter settings orcharacteristics can be provided in the form of tuner settings. A tuneris provided to generate content results based on the tuner settings. Thetuner settings form media channels when used by the tuner to filtercontent and generate content results. Importance levels may be assignedto the tuner settings to control the dominance of particular settings intuning. The tuner settings may also be predefined preferences of theuser or other preferences assigned by a system. For example, the tunersettings may be based on a scoring system, wherein the scores aredetermined according to predefined preferences, including those of auser. As the tuner settings are adjusted, media content results areproduced. The tuner settings can be stored to create a media channel forlater retrieval and content generation. The media channels can be givencustom names by the users for recognition and later retrieval fortuning.

The tuner settings can also be provided in the form of one or more tags.The tuner generates content results based on content matching the tags.The tuner settings can include multiple tags of the same type in a taggrouping. A tag grouping is a container that can hold one or more tagsof the same type. For example, one type of tag group is “genre.” Withthe genre tag group, a user can deposit one or more genre tags ofinterest to be used in filtering to produce content results. The tagswithin a tag grouping can be assigned different levels of importance infiltering. For example, a “rock” tag within a genre tag grouping can beassigned an importance level of 8 out of 10, while a “metal” tag in thesame genre tag grouping can be assigned an importance level of 6 out of10. In this instance, the tuner will focus the content results moretowards “rock” genre than “metal” genre.

In addition to or in lieu of the system suggesting additionalcharacteristics associated with a result of interest selected by theuser from among the content results, additional filteringcharacteristics can also provided to the user for inclusion in the tunersettings that are related to the characteristics of the user-selectedresult. These additional related characteristics may not be accountedfor in the filter settings. The system may have stored characteristicsthat are deemed relevant to those included in the user's selectedresult. For example, a user-selected result may include a “hard rock”genre tag. In response, the system may suggest “rock” genre as anadditional filtering characteristic for a result having a “hard rock”tag. In this example, the system has stored “hard rock” genre as beingrelevant to “rock” genre.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate the scope of the presentinvention and realize additional aspects thereof after reading thefollowing detailed description of the preferred embodiments inassociation with the accompanying drawing figures.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawing figures incorporated in and forming a part ofthis specification illustrate several aspects of the invention, andtogether with the description serve to explain the principles of theinvention.

FIG. 1 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary process for producingfiltered content and allowing a user to provide additionalcharacteristics for filtering in an iterative manner based oncharacteristics of content results, according to one embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 2 is a diagram of content results generated according to tagsassigned to tag groupings to provide filter settings, according to oneembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3A illustrates an exemplary tag grouping that is adapted to holddesired tags to be used in filter settings according to assigned andadjustable levels of importance, according to one embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 3B illustrates a table for storing assigned importance levels fortags assigned to a tag grouping, according to one embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 4 is a diagram of content results with one of the results beingselected by the user and having additional characteristics not employedin the current filter settings, according to one embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 5 is an illustration of the content results provided in FIG. 4,with the user having selected additional characteristics from theselected result to be used in the filter settings to produce a new setof content results;

FIG. 6 is an illustration of a new media channel created from contentresults, according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7A is an illustration of providing additional related tags relatedto a user-selected content result that may be selected for inclusion inthe filter settings to be used in further generating content results,according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7B is a table illustrating the importance level assigned to theadditional related tags illustrated in FIG. 7A, according to oneembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 illustrates an alternative configuration for displaying contentresults to a user, according to one embodiment of the present invention;and

FIG. 9 is an illustration of an exemplary media delivery system that mayprovide or employ aspects of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The embodiments set forth below represent the necessary information toenable those skilled in the art to practice the invention and illustratethe best mode of practicing the invention. Upon reading the followingdescription in light of the accompanying drawing figures, those skilledin the art will understand the concepts of the invention and willrecognize applications of these concepts not particularly addressedherein. It should be understood that these concepts and applicationsfall within the scope of the disclosure and the accompanying claims.

Embodiments of the present invention include systems and methods forallowing a user to more effectively generate focused content results,including but not limited to audio and/or video content results. Contentis initially filtered to generate results in response to initialfiltering characteristics or settings. The content results are thenprovided to a user for review. Once the user finds and selects a contentresult of particular interest, additional filtering characteristicsassociated with the selected result are provided to the user assuggestions to include as updates to the filtering settings. Thesuggested filtering characteristics are characteristics that werepreviously unaccounted for in the filtering settings to produce theresults. The updated filter settings can then be used to generate newcontent results. In this manner, the regeneration of content results ismore likely to produce highly relevant and focused results. This isbecause the results are used to affect the filtering itself. Theadditional filtering characteristics suggested to the user arecharacteristics of results deemed relevant by the user, as opposed totraditional filtering engines that only produce results in onedirection—from settings to results. With each new generation of contentresults, additional and previously unaccounted for filteringcharacteristics of selected results can be continued to be provided tothe user. The user can continue to select these additional filteringcharacteristics to generate new content results in an iterative anddynamic manner until the results are sufficiently focused to the user'sdesires. It is possible that after a certain number of iterations, theuser's selection of results will not provide new previously unaccountedfor filtering characteristics. This may also provide the user somedegree of comfort that the content results are sufficiently focused.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the content is audio and/orvideo media. Filter settings or characteristics are provided in the formof tuner settings. Importance levels or weightings may be assigned tothe settings. The tuner settings may also be predefined preferences ofthe user or other preferences assigned by a system. For example, thetuner settings may be based on a scoring system, wherein the scores aredetermined according to predefined preferences, including those of auser. As the tuner settings are adjusted, media content results areproduced. The tuner settings form media channels. The media channels canbe stored for later retrieval and content generation by storing thetuner settings. The media channels can be given custom names by theusers for recognition and later retrieval for tuning.

In this regard, FIG. 1 is a flowchart illustrating the filtering processaccording to one embodiment of the present invention. The exemplarysteps in FIG. 1 will be discussed in conjunction with user displays inFIGS. 2-7B, which may execute on a client device to provide the contentresults to a user in response to filtering content. In this embodiment,the content being filtered is audio and/or video media. Filtering inthis context is also known as tuning. A tuner may be provided to executethe filter. Filter settings or characteristics in the form of tunersettings are used by the tuner to filter content and provide filteredcontent results. The tuner settings may be predefined preferences of theuser or other preferences assigned by a system. For example, the tunersettings may be based on a scoring system, wherein the scores aredetermined according to predefined preferences, including those of auser. As the tuner settings are adjusted, the tuning content results areregenerated. The tuner settings form media channels. Different channelsmay be established and selected by a user wherein each channel hasassociated tuner settings. Thus, when a particular channel is selected,the tuner settings stored for the channel will be recalled by the tunerto generate the content results.

Turning to FIG. 1, the exemplary process of tuning audio and/or videomedia starts by applying the current tuner settings for the selectedchannel to produce the tuning results (step 10). Next, the contentresults are provided to the user on a user client so that the user canbrowse or select from among the results (step 12). FIG. 2 illustrates anexample of a display 100 that may be displayed by a user client toprovide content results to a user. In this example, the content isdisplayed in a display window 102. The name of a selected channel 104may be displayed in the display window 102 to show the user whichchannel is currently being tuned. The content results 106 may bevisually displayed to the user, whereby the results are a function ofcontent generated when the tuner settings for the selected channel areapplied (e.g. step 10 of FIG. 1). In this example, the content results106 are album or song media recommendations made to the user from otherpeer users in a media recommendation system. Such a system is describedin co-pending and commonly assigned application Ser. No. 11/484,130entitled “P2P NETWORK FOR PROVIDING REAL TIME MEDIA RECOMMENDATIONS,”which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

In the example illustrated in FIG. 2, the tuner settings in this exampleare to provide the results 106 in the order of recommendation scores. Ascoring system previously scored the recommendations according topreferences or settings. In this example, the results 106 are providedin the form of icons. The song having the highest recommendation scoreis displayed at the top left icon of the results 106. The next highestscoring recommendation is displayed next in numerically descendingorder, from left to right, and top to bottom. If more recommendationsresult from the tuner settings than can be displayed on the display 100at one time, a paging scroll bar 107 may be provided to allow the userto traverse between different pages to display all the content results106. Also note that in the spirit of providing a simplified drawingexample, the results 106 illustrated in FIG. 2 and later illustrationsinclude duplicate icons. However in practice, each result 106 wouldtypically be unique.

In this example, the filter characteristics or tuner settings associatedwith the results 106 are tags that are displayed in tag groupings108A-108E. The tag groupings 108 are designed to hold tags of the sametype. For example, the genre tag grouping 108A holds genre type tags.The tag groupings 108 are filled with tags that represent the tagsassociated with the results 106 in this example. Thus initially, the taggroupings 108 are part of the tuner settings, but they were not setdirectly by the user in this example. However, the user can adjust thetags in the tag groupings 108 to adjust the tuner settings. In response,the content results 106 will be regenerated by the tuner according tothe adjusted tuner settings. Further, the user can adjust the taggroupings 108 themselves to control whether any tags of a certain tagtype will be included in the tuner settings, and if so, to what extent.

In the example of FIG. 2, the dominance or level of importance of thetag groupings 108 are provided according to their visual size. The levelof importance can be adjusted by the user. For example, the “genre” taggrouping 108A is larger in size than the “artist” tag grouping 108B.This means that “genre” tags are deemed to play a higher level ofimportance by the tuner to produce results 106 than the “artist.”Likewise, the tags within a tag grouping 108 can also be sized tocontrol the relative level of importance among other tags. FIGS. 3A and3B illustrate this concept by example. As illustrated in FIG. 3A, theuser has selected the “hip-hop” tag 110 within the “genre” tag grouping108A. Once selected, a sizing ellipse 112 is displayed for the “hip-hop”tag 110 with the current level of importance 113 display. Sizing arrows114 are also displayed that allow the user to click and drag in thedesired direction to expand or shrink the size of the tag 110 to changeits level of importance 113. In this example, the level of importancefor the “hip-hop” tag 110 is ‘8’ out of a maximum of ‘10.’ If the levelof importance is changed by the user by resizing the sizing ellipse 112,the level of importance 113 will also be updated and displayed in kindin the sizing ellipse 112. Selecting a tag grouping 108 may also cause apop-up window 116 to be displayed to allow the user to add other tags118 to the tag grouping 108 to be included in the tuner settings. Moreinformation about the ability to assign tags to tag groupings 108 andresizing tag groupings and/or the tags within tag groupings to controlrelative levels of importance in filtering content is described inco-pending and commonly assigned application Ser. No. 11/955,534, filedon Dec. 13, 2007 and entitled “RESIZING TAG REPRESENTATIONS OR TAG GROUPREPRESENTATIONS TO CONTROL RELATIVE IMPORTANCE,” which is incorporatedherein by reference in its entirety. The tags assigned to a tag groupingas well as their assigned level of importance may be stored in a tagtable 119 as part of the tuner settings.

After the content results 106 are displayed to the user (step 12 in FIG.1), the system waits for a selection from the user. The user may selectany item of interest among the content results 106 for play or furtherinspection (step 14). The user can quickly expose more detail about aparticular content result 106 by moving a mouse cursor over the icon ofthe desired result. If the user desires to select a particular contentresult 106, the user can then click on the icon representing the desiredresult 106. FIG. 4 illustrates a user display 100 showing an exemplaryresult 106 selected by the user. In this example, the user has selectedthe highest scoring song recommendation by clicking at the top left ofthe results on “Forgotten,” by “Linkin Park.” In response, a resultswindow 120 is generated to show the user more information about theselection. The album cover 122, play controls 124, and othercharacteristic information about the result 126 are visually displayedto the user. Some characteristic information about the selected resultis already included in the tuner settings. These characteristics of theselection are highlighted in both the results window 120 and the taggroupings 108. For example, the selection illustrated in FIG. 2 is of“alternative” genre 132, was released in the “2000's” decade 133, andwas recommended by “Abraham” 134. Highlighting may take the form of adifferent text color, font, text size, or other visually distinctmanner. This provides a convenient visual display to the user of whichtuner settings used by the tuner were met by the selected result.

In addition to informing the user of characteristics of the selectedresult that are included in the tuner settings, any additionalcharacteristics associated with the selected result that are notincluded in current tuner settings are also highlighted to the userwithin the characteristic information 126. These are also calledunaccounted characteristics, or unaccounted tags in this example. Inthis example of FIG. 4, the artist name “Linkin Park” 130A and the“punk” genre are highlighted as additional characteristics not presentlyincluded in the tuner settings. Thus, if the user wants to further focusthe content results 106 to results more closely focused on thecharacteristics to the selected result, the user can select any of theadditional characteristics to be added to the tuner settings (step 16 ofFIG. 1). The system will add the unaccounted characteristics to thetuner settings (step 18 of FIG. 1), and the tuner will automaticallygenerate updated results 106 based on the updated tuner settings takinginto account the previously unaccounted characteristics selected by theuser. In this manner, the user can easily start focusing the results 106to those more similar to the characteristics of their selected resultsof interest. Thus, the present invention allows the user to adjust thetuner settings in an iterative manner based on characteristics ofcontent results of interest to the user. This will effectively focus theresults 106 to those highly relevant to the user's desires or interest.This is opposed to filtering technologies where the user adjusts thetuner settings not based on characteristics of relevant results, but onother factors. Thus, these other filtering technologies are only aseffective as the user's knowledge and skill of the possiblecharacteristics available for filtering. In contrast, the presentinvention also provides suggestions to the user for additional filteringcharacteristics based on results the user has deemed relevant to theirinterests.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example of the user display 100 after the user hasselected previously unaccounted characteristics to be included in thetuner settings causing the tuner to regenerate content results 106(steps 16 and 18 in FIG. 1). Note that the tag groupings 108 now includethe previously unaccounted and user-selected tags of “punk” genre 138and artist of “Linkin Park” 140. Because these tags are now part of thetuner settings, they are likewise highlighted in the tag groupings 108as being accounted for and relevant characteristics in the current tunersettings. Once the unaccounted tags are added to the tag groupings 108,the user can resize those tags as well as others, as previouslydescribed, to adjust their level of importance in use by the tuner togenerate results 106. A default level of importance may be provideduntil the user resizes tags and/or tag groupings.

The process continues by the tuner generating content results 106 basedon the user's selection of relevant results 106 and providingadjustments to the tuner settings. These adjustments can include bothaccounted and unaccounted characteristics in the tuner settings. Theuser repeats this process in an iterative manner, if desired, until theuser is satisfied that the content results 106 are sufficiently focused.If desired, the user can store the tuner settings under a new channel atany time during the iterations (decision 20 in FIG. 1). If a new channelis created, the current tuner settings are stored under the new channel(step 22 in FIG. 1). An example of this is illustrated in FIG. 6,wherein the new channel “New Alt Channel” has been created. In thismanner, the user can recall stored tuner settings assigned to thechannel that produced the desired content results 106. Once a newchannel is created, the process repeats by providing content results 106according to the tuner settings as the initial results 106. Thus, notags in the tag groupings 108 will be highlighted for a newly selectedchannel until a particular result 106 is selected by the user.

In another embodiment, the present invention can also facilitatefocusing content results 106 by providing the user additional filteringcharacteristics that are not assigned to the user-selected contentresult, but instead are related to the selected content result. Thisallows the user more options to focus content results based on relatedinterests or goals. In this embodiment, the system provides the relatedadditional characteristics for the user as a measure of assistanceinstead of the user having to be solely familiar with relatedcharacteristics that may be included in updated filter settings.

The additional related filtering characteristics may not be accountedfor in either the tuner settings or in the characteristics of theuser-selected content result. The user is then free to select any ofthese additional related filtering characteristics to be included in thetuner settings to have the tuner produce updated content results 106.FIG. 7A illustrates this by example. In this example, the user hasselected the song “Forgotten” by “Linkin Park” from the content results106. However, in this embodiment, the additional related characteristicsthat are not included in the selected result, but are related to it, aredisplayed for possible selection. In this example, several differentgenre types 142 are displayed in an additional related characteristicellipse 144 for possible selection that are not “alternative” and “punk”genres, but may be closely related to these genre types. The system mayhave pre-defined settings indicating which additional relatedcharacteristics or tags are to be provided and displayed to the user inresponse to given characteristics of a user-selected content result 106.A table may be provided to store these additional relatedcharacteristics like the additional related genre table 145 illustratedin FIG. 7B. In this example, other genres 142 are assigned as beingrelevant to “punk” genre, with a level of importance or relevanceassigned to each. This level of importance controls the sizing of theadditional related characteristics when displayed in the additionalrelated characteristic ellipse 144.

FIG. 8 illustrates an alternative user display 150 for displayingcontent results to a user. In this example, the content results 106′ areprovided in list form as opposed to icons. Other characteristics 152 ofthe results 106′ may be displayed in the list. In this example, a score154 is also associated with each of the results 106′. This score 154 maybe used to control the ordering of the initial results set by the tunerin this example. The scoring may be based on any settings or algorithm,including settings based on the user's preferences.

FIG. 9 illustrates a system diagram of a content delivery and sharingsystem 170 that may be employed by the present invention to access andfilter content. A central server 172 may be provided that providesaccess to content and other content related services, such as contentflow management, to user devices 174 over a network 176. The network 176may be a wide area network, a local area network, a wired or wirelessnetwork, or any other type of network, including but not limited to theInternet. The central server 172 may facilitate providing contentservices to user devices 174 via a server component 178 that executes tohandle requests and provide responses. This also enables users to accessand share content in the system 170 and with other peer user devices174A-174N. The central server 172 may have accessible content stored ina database 182 or may obtain the content from other services, such assubscription-based services 194.

The central server 172 may require the user to have an established useraccount 180 stored in the database 182 to access content-based servicesfrom the central server 172. To establish a user account, users maydirect their user device 174 to contact the central server 172, andnamely the server component 178 within the central server 172. Theserver component 178 may store user account and associated informationin a record of user accounts 180 in the database 182 within oraccessible to the central server 172.

The user devices 174 may contain a media player 184 to allow a user toplay media content and content results, including songs and/or videopresentations for example. The user device 174 may also contain a tuner190 to provide the results 106, 106′ to a user at the user device 174 aspreviously described. The user device 174 may also contain tunersettings 192 locally to be used by the tuner 190 to provide contentresults to the user. Alternatively, the tuner settings may be storedremotely, such as at the central server 172 under the user's account, orelsewhere that is network accessible. The tuner settings 192 may bepredefined user preferences or settings, or may be any other type ofsettings or algorithms for allowing the tuner 190 to filter and providecontent results.

The user device 174 may also have media content stored locally in auser's media collection 186. The tuner 190 may access the mediacollection 186 to provide content results. If the desired media contentis not stored locally, the tuner 190 may also be adapted to access othersystems to obtain desired media content. In this regard, the user device174 may request media content from the subscription service 194, or fromthe central server 172.

Further, in order to access media-based services from the central server172, users may be required to download a client application 188 to theiruser device 174 from the central server 172. The client application 188provides software to allow the user devices 174 to communicate with thecentral server 172 to access media-based services and relatedinformation. For example, a user device 174 may contact the centralserver 172, via the client application 188, to request certain mediacontent. The central server 172 may provide the requested media contentfrom its database 182 if present, or may access an outside service, suchas the subscription service 194 for example, to access the requestedmedia content.

The client application 188 may also facilitate the user devices 174sending and receiving media recommendations to and from other peer userdevices 174 in the system 170 as described in application Ser. No.11/484,130, previously referenced above. A user may desire to recommenda given media content to a friend. In this instance, the user, acting asa recommender, instructs their user device 174 to send a recommendationfor the desired media content to a recipient user's device 174. Thisinstruction may be performed by the recommender user manually orautomatically as a result of the recommender playing a given mediacontent. The recommender user may have a pre-defined list of friendsthat will be sent recommendations for media content once played by therecommender user. In either case, the media recommendation is sent overthe network 176 to the central server 172. The central server 172intercepts the media recommendations and forwards it to the recipient'suser device 174. There, the recipient's user device 174 may place themedia recommendation in a media queue, which may be a playlist forexample, so that the recipient user's device 174 can access, display,and/or play the recommended media content. The media queue may containan ordered list of media content scheduled to be played by the userdevice 174. The order of placement of the received media recommendationin the media queue may be controlled by a scoring algorithm. The scoringalgorithm may be controlled or influenced by the tuner settings 192. Thetuner settings 192 may include preferences based on media attributes, ormay be based on other information including the identity of therecommender, as examples.

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited tofiltering or tuning of audio or video media. The present invention maybe used to filter or tune any type of content. The present invention maybe used in any type of filtering technology. This includes searchengines, including those on the Internet to search content availablethrough the world wide web. The filter or tuner employed by the presentinvention may be located at a user device or at another device,including but not limited to a central server. Further, the filter ortuner settings may likewise be located at a user device or at anotherdevice, including but not limited to a central server. If located atother devices other than a user device, the tuner may operation inconjunction with a user device to display results to the user andreceive a user's selections regarding filtering characteristics andtuning channels.

Those skilled in the art will recognize improvements and modificationsto the preferred embodiments of the present invention. All suchimprovements and modifications are considered within the scope of theconcepts disclosed herein and the claims that follow.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for filtering content, comprising thesteps of: generating first content results based on first filtersettings applied to a source of content, the first content resultscomprising a plurality of content; displaying the first content resultsbased on recommendation scores of the plurality of content of the firstcontent results; receiving a selection of content from a user devicefrom among the first content results; in response to receipt of theselection, generating a suggestive characteristic associated with theselected content and unaccounted for in the first filter settingsapplied to the source of content; providing the suggestivecharacteristic to the user device; receiving a selection of thesuggestive characteristic from the user device; in response to receiptof the selection, adding the suggestive characteristic received from theuser device to the first filter settings to provide second filtersettings, wherein at least one of the first filter settings and thesecond filter settings comprise a tag grouping including a tag defininga characteristic of content; assigning a level of importance to the tagin the tag grouping in at least one of the first filter settings and thesecond filter settings to control the level of importance of the tag inthe at least one of the first filter settings and the second filtersettings; and generating second content results based on the secondfilter settings applied to the source of content.
 2. The method of claim1 further comprising assigning a level of importance to the tag groupingin at least one of the first filter settings and the second filtersettings to control the level of importance of the tag grouping in theat least one of the first filter settings and the second filtersettings.
 3. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying thesecond content results based on recommendation scores of the pluralityof content of the second content results; receiving a selection ofcontent from a user device from among the second content results inresponse to receipt of the selection, generating a suggestivecharacteristic associated with the selected content and unaccounted forin the second filter settings applied to the source of content;providing the suggestive characteristic to the user device; receiving aselection of the suggestive characteristic from the user device; inresponse to receipt of the selection, adding the suggestivecharacteristic received from the user device to the second filtersettings; generating further content results based on the second filtersettings applied to the source of content; and repeat the steps ofdisplaying the second content results, receiving the selection ofcontent, generating a suggestive characteristic, providing thesuggestive characteristic, receiving the selection of the suggestivecharacteristic, adding the suggestive characteristic, and generatingfurther content results in an iterative manner.
 4. The method of claim 3wherein the iteratively manner is stopped after a predetermined numberof times.
 5. The method of claim 4 wherein the iteratively manner isstopped when there are no further suggestive characteristics.
 6. Themethod of claim 3 further comprising re-assigning the level ofimportance to the tag grouping in at least one of the first filtersettings and the second filter settings to control the level ofimportance of the tag grouping in the at least one of the first filtersettings and the second filter settings
 7. The method of claim 3,further comprising creating a channel based on the updated filtersettings.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein generating content resultsbased on filter settings being applied to a source of content comprisesgenerating content results based on tuner settings being applied to asource of content.
 9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:providing at least one additional characteristic relating to the atleast one suggestive characteristic to the user and that was unaccountedfor in the at least one suggestive characteristic; receiving a selectionfrom the user of the at least one additional characteristic; includingthe at least one additional characteristic selected by the user in thefilter settings to provide updated filter settings; and generating newcontent results based on the updated filter settings being applied tothe source of content.
 10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:receiving a selection from the user of at least one filtercharacteristic not associated with content selection; and including theat least one filter characteristic not associated with the contentselection in the filter settings to provide updated filter settings. 11.The method of claim 1, further comprising: displaying the filtersettings to the user; and displaying the at least one suggestivecharacteristic in a visually distinct manner from the filter settings.12. The method of claim 1, wherein at least the steps of generatingfirst content results, generating and providing the suggestivecharacteristic, adding the suggested characteristic, and generating newcontent results are performed by a central server located apart from theuser device.
 13. A device for filtering content, comprising: a tunercoupled to a source of content, wherein the tuner is adapted to:generate first content results based on first filter settings applied toa source of content, the first content results comprising a plurality ofcontent; displaying the first content results based on recommendationscores of the plurality of content of the first content results; receivea selection of content from a user device from among the first contentresults; in response to receipt of the selection, generate a suggestivecharacteristic associated with the selected content and unaccounted forin the first filter settings applied to the source of content; providethe suggestive characteristic to the user device; receive a selection ofthe suggestive characteristic from the user device; in response toreceipt of the selection, add the suggestive characteristic receivedfrom the user device to the first filter settings to provide secondfilter settings, wherein at least one of the first filter settings andthe second filter settings comprise a tag grouping including a tagdefining a characteristic of content; assign a level of importance tothe tag in the tag grouping in at least one of the first filter settingsand the second filter settings to control the level of importance of thetag in the at least one of the first filter settings and the secondfilter settings; and generate second content results based on the secondfilter settings applied to the source of content.
 14. The device ofclaim 13, wherein the tuner is further adapted to display the secondcontent results to the user based on recommendation scores of thecontent of the second content results; receive a selection of contentfrom a user device from among the second content results in response toreceipt of the selection, generate a suggestive characteristicassociated with the selected content and unaccounted for in the secondfilter settings applied to the source of content; provide the suggestivecharacteristic to the user device; receive a selection of the suggestivecharacteristic from the user device; in response to receipt of theselection, add the suggestive characteristic received from the userdevice to the second filter settings; generate further content resultsbased on the second filter settings applied to the source of content;and repeat the steps to display the second content results, receive theselection of content, generate a suggestive characteristic, providingthe suggestive characteristic, receive the selection of the suggestivecharacteristic, add the suggestive characteristic, and generate furthercontent results in an iterative manner.
 15. The device of claim 13,wherein the tuner is further adapted to create a channel based on theupdated tuner settings.
 16. The device of claim 13, wherein the sourceof content is comprised from a group consisting of audio media, videomedia, and audio and video media.
 17. The device of claim 13, whereinthe tuner settings comprise at least one tag defining a characteristicof content.
 18. The device of claim 16, wherein the tuner is furtheradapted to assign a level of importance to the at least one tag in thetuner settings to control the level of importance of the at least onetag in the tuner settings.
 19. The device of claim 13, further whereinthe tuner is further adapted to: provide at least one additionalcharacteristic relating to the at least one suggestive characteristic tothe user and that was unaccounted for in the at least one suggestivecharacteristic; receive a selection from the user of the at least oneadditional characteristic; include the at least one additionalcharacteristic selected by the user in the tuner settings to provideupdated tuner settings; and generate new content results based on theupdated tuner settings being applied to the source of content.
 20. Thedevice of claim 13, wherein the tuner is further adapted to: display thetuner settings to the user; and display the at least one suggestivecharacteristic in a visually distinct manner from the tuner settings.21. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructionsfor instructing a computer to: generate first content results based onfirst filter settings applied to a source of content, the first contentresults comprising a plurality of content; display the first contentresults based on recommendation scores of the plurality of content ofthe first content results; receive a selection of content from a userdevice from among the first content results; in response to receipt ofthe selection, generate a suggestive characteristic associated with theselected content and unaccounted for in the first filter settingsapplied to the source of content; provide the suggestive characteristicto the user device; receive a selection of the suggestive characteristicfrom the user device; in response to receipt of the selection, add thesuggestive characteristic received from the user device to the firstfilter settings to provide second filter settings, wherein at least oneof the first filter settings and the second filter settings comprise atag grouping including a tag defining a characteristic of content;assign a level of importance to the tag in the tag grouping in at leastone of the first filter settings and the second filter settings tocontrol the level of importance of the tag in the at least one of thefirst filter settings and the second filter settings; and generatesecond content results based on the second filter settings applied tothe source of content.
 22. The computer readable medium of claim 21comprising further instructions to: display the second content resultsto the user based on recommendation scores of the content of the secondcontent results; receive a selection of content from a user device fromamong the second content results in response to receipt of theselection, generate a suggestive characteristic associated with theselected content and unaccounted for in the second filter settingsapplied to the source of content; provide the suggestive characteristicto the user device; receive a selection of the suggestive characteristicfrom the user device; in response to receipt of the selection, add thesuggestive characteristic received from the user device to the secondfilter settings; generate further content results based on the secondfilter settings applied to the source of content; and repeat the stepsto display the second content results, receive the selection of content,generate a suggestive characteristic, providing the suggestivecharacteristic, receive the selection of the suggestive characteristic,add the suggestive characteristic, and generate further content resultsin an iterative manner.